Walmart chief technology officer Jeremy King has resigned from the retail company, Reuters reported.
Jeremy King, who joined the company in 2011, led a revamp of Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce technology platform by making it faster, more competitive and customer-friendly in order to take on rivals including Amazon.com.
Walmart said capital expenditures for fiscal 2019 will be approximately $11 billion vs $10.3 billion in fiscal 2018. The focus will be on store remodels, customer initiatives, eCommerce business, technology and supply chain.
Walmart has reported revenue of $514.4 billion (+2.8 percent) in fiscal 2018. Walmart has enhanced grocery pickup and delivery to more than 2,100 and nearly 800 locations, respectively. Walmart U.S. e-commerce sales increased 40 percent.
Walmart under Jeremy King integrated its retail stores and online systems and began offering shoppers services such as in-store pickup of online orders, easy returns and online grocery pickup, among other benefits.
Jeremy King also led the company’s technology arm, Walmart Labs, through more than 10 acquisitions and was key in moving the company’s operations to the cloud, which gave the retailer more resources to compete with Amazon. He also oversaw the opening of four new tech offices.
In the past two years, Jeremy King oversaw the tech transformation of Walmart’s roughly 4,700 U.S. stores.
Walmart is in the middle of making massive investments in its e-commerce business to compete more effectively. Walmart in February said it expects its e-commerce losses to increase this year due to investments and it is focused on increasing return customer visits and strengthening its online product assortment.
Walmart’s online sales grew 43 percent in the most recent quarter and matched the previous quarter’s increase. The company credited that to a broader assortment of goods on its website and improved delivery, as well as store pickup of online grocery orders.
Walmart created relationships with Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA and others as part of the digital transformation strategy, Walmart US CEO Greg Foran and US e-commerce chief Marc Lore said in the memo.
Fiona Tan, senior vice-president of customer technology, Walmart Labs, will take on more responsibility as Jeremy King’s replacement is found. She has been asked to become a liaison for the technology team, Walmart U.S. and the U.S. ecommerce leadership team, according to a memo.
